We're starting to hear about quite a few bocce happenings for the Fall season. That's a good sign. We usually see a slow down in bocce activities hereabouts when summer begins to come to an end.

Reminder: Our 5th annual Martignetti Family Charity Bocce Tournament is set for Sunday, October 11, 2009 at the SportsZone in Derry, NH. This year the proceeds will benefit the Michael J. Cleary Fund.

The fund honors First Lieutenant Michael J. Cleary, a U.S. military munitions expert who was killed during valorous service in Iraq in 2005. More details below - for now, please mark your calendar and join us if you can. This is a great event that has raised money for great causes like The Jimmy Fund, Joey Fund, Alzheimer's research, and kidney disease research.

"In June’s Bocce News, a great deal was said about the Bocce game called 'Volo'. This style of bocce is played with bronze bocce balls all over the world. The National United States Volo Championships were held in San Francisco at Aquatic Park June 21st & 22nd. This competition served as a qualifying event for the World Championships to be held at Macon, France, September 28th – October 4th with 34 countries. Macon is located about 50 miles north of Lyon, France."

Congratulations to Marco, Benji, and Delio for qualifying to represent the United States at the World Championships. They most likely will compete in four of the six events as follows: Singles, Marco; Doubles, Marco and Delio; Precision Throw, Benji; Combination, Benji.

Notes: This will be Marco’s fifth World Championships. His best performance was his USA All-Time Best 5th place finish in 2003. Benji has competed in the past three World Championships. His best performance was an 11th place finish in the Progressive Throw at the 2005 World Championships. In addition, he won the first ever US bronze medal at the 2008 Pan American Bocce Championships in the Progressive Throw.

"I am going to have the USA Pallino D' Oro at the Palazzo Di Bocce on Friday, November 20, 2009 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. and finishing Saturday morning, November 21. Round robin play - all USBF and Canadian Bocce Federation players welcome.

I am going to also have the North American Pallino D'Oro on Saturday, November 21 starting at noon and finishing Sunday morning. It will be a single elimination tournament. The top16 USA players and the top 16 Canadian players will compete. They will qualify in the USA pallino D'Oro. Thanks for posting this. I am the contact person - Ph# 246-505-4744. The costs and prizes will follow in a week."

Zander Ponzo of The Burlington Bocce Club (Vermont) sent me a copy of their playing rules. I copied and pasted a couple interesting tidbits with my comments...

"The following rules and have evolved from two years of play on these courts and are based on United States Bocce Federation Open rules and International rules.

Teams

Play here is usually singles or doubles. In doubles all four players start on one end, with each player throwing two balls. The order in which players on a team throw their balls is a team decision, but each player cannot throw more than two balls. At the end of a round, players move to the other end of the court. Doubles can also be played with one player from each team at each end. In this case each player throws four balls and stays at the same end at the end of the round. Play then resumes from the other end.

{Singles, doubles, and triples are my favorite ways to play. In doubles, I'd much prefer all players walking back and forth and playing two balls each. Let's play every frame and get a little gentle exercise in the process. If you have someone in the group who is unable to walk, then stationing one teammate at each end rolling all four balls makes good sense.}

Throwing-Time Limit

An individual player has 30 seconds to throw from the time of the start of a round and from the finish of the previous person’s throw. However, if a measurement has been called for, the 30 seconds starts at the completion of the measurement.

{Thirty seconds seems a little rushed. What's the hurry? I think the international rule is one minute.}

Intentionally Displacing Ball or Pallino

If a player intends to displace a bocce ball or the pallino more than one yard by rolling or lofting his or her shot, the player must indicate his or her intention to the other team and the referee, if there is one, before the shot is taken. Prior to the shot, a circle with a six-inch radius will be drawn around the target. The shot is valid if the player does not foot fault, or initially strike any other ball or the pallino that is more than six inches from the intended target, i.e., outside of the drawn circle. When a non-alerted moves a ball or pallino more than 36”, the Rule of Advantage is invoked.

{OK, we are calling our shots as in international play. A six inch circle is something I never encountered before. Non-alerted is a strange designation...seems like it would be difficult to alert an inanimate object like a bocce ball. International rules call a ball to be displaced only 70 cm before Rule of Advantage applies. Maybe 36 inches is an attempt to stay with English units rather than metric?

Isn't it amazing how the game is played so differently all over the place and is still making gains in popularity?

Don't forget Sandro Martignetti's request for help with this year's charity bocce tourney...

Proceeds from this year’s tournament will be donated to the Michael J. Cleary Fund, which honors First Lieutenant Michael J. Cleary who was killed during valorous service in Iraq in 2005. Michael, a true American hero, lost his life at the hands of a roadside bomb. The goals of the Fund include supporting causes in the community that Michael gave his life supporting, aiding wounded veterans, helping families of our fallen heroes, and supporting other organizations which support OUR U.S. veterans. Plus, we hope to bring awareness to the daily sacrifices made by our servicemen and women in keeping our country safe.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to seeing you on October 11. (Details of the event can be found at http://www.bocce4charity.us .)

{If you are going to be in the neighborhood of Derry, New Hampshire and can help, please REPLY to SandroMart@aol.com . If you can make a contribution, please send to MFCBT c/o Martignetti Enterprises, 29 High St., Woburn, MA 01801.}

The current plan is to keep the 2nd edition in print, while updating and tightening the new edition to make it more helpful to the average player and the person interested in learning the game. Of paramount importance for the new edition are an attractive, high impact cover, high quality images throughout, and simple, easy-to-read chapters for beginners and devotees.

Still need a foreword from someone with a pretty high profile – am attempting to contact John Madden and Steve Mariucci regarding this. They are not only high profile, but they love bocce.

Please feel free to comment and help shape the new edition.

Looking for high resolution photos (300 dpi) of the following:

great looking bocce courts
lawn bowls play
petanque play
kiss the fanny image

Send to Mario@joyofbocce.com along with your name for proper credit and permission to reprint. Thanks.

"Been a while since I have written but bocce is alive and well in the PNW. Boccemon recently supplied oyster surface for a second court at Microsoft as well as for two new courts at the Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island: http://www.rocheharbor.com/ . It has reportedly become the gathering place for many boaters.

Another one we are proud of is Aunt Chilada's in Phoenix, Arizona. http://www.auntchiladas.com/ . It is a fabulous restaurant located about a mile from the American Italian Club in Phoenix which has 4 beautiful 90' stone fine surfaced courts. The owner mentioned to me the other day that they used to close a little early at least a few days a week before they put in the court. Word is they have to extract players at closing time. It is a terrific outdoor venue located adjacent to a well stocked pilapa (sp?) bar. We shipped more to the Dogfish Head Brewery in Lewes, Delaware as they have had such success with their two courts over the past 4 years that they lengthened them to 80' this Summer. They are holding their Intergalactic Bocce Tournament September 19th I believe."

"I am heading up a Charity Bocce Tournament at the end of October. It is for a foundation call Italidea. Italidea is a not-for profit organization created in 1995 with the purpose of promoting and expanding the knowledge of Italian language and culture throughout. Working in close relationship with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and with the Education Office of the Consulate General of Italy, Italidea organizes a variety of private courses and promotes several public and private school programs for the teaching of the Italian language, providing financial support for teachers' salaries as well as instructional materials."

{Met with Paul recently and can recommend him to you without reservation. He's spending what should be his retirement years giving back to the community by sharing his cruise earnings with various charities.}

This week's pics are held over from last week with some new information added. The photos came courtesy of Jeffrey Thompson who helped run the 4th Annual Mia Maria (Sons of Italy Lodge #2813) Bocce Festival in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Jeff says that "the photos were taken by member and Secretary of our chapter, Sue Castaneda."

The festival was held at Frontier Park's Indian Village.

Here's the new information Jeff submitted that I added to the captions for the corresponding photos.

The founding family photo from left to right:
Marc Rauzi, Jim Rauzi and Matt Rauzi

Our measuring devices were made by a couple of members of our chapter, Chris Aldrich and John Groth.

The device goes over a 40mm pallino (we have a couple the will fit over 50-60mm pallinos) and yes, it pivots around to measure.

For the Bocce Festival we use 100mm composite balls and a 40mm pallino by Halex.

For the courts I made a template out of 1” PVC, 10ft x 40ft and used non-toxic white field marking paint. We had 8 courts. The paint held up nicely to the rain. The judges wore orange vests (Wyoming is a hunting state).

"We got there to set up @ 7:00 AM and as the day progressed, temperatures probably got near 80ish. A few showers fell during the day with one rain delay for about 20 to 30 minutes.

But by the time we loaded out about 6:00 PM, winds were gusting about 40 to 50 mph, rain was pounding and the temperature was down in the 40’s.

As I’m sure you are fully aware that 'Bocce-ites' all over have and will continue to be of the heartiest sort. We had enough antifreeze to keep us warm!

Keep us in mind if you are out our way."

{Yes, I'll definitely keep your festival inmind. From the looks of the photos, you have all the elements in place for an excellent event.

These photos are now a permanent part of The Joy of Bocce web site under Bocce Tidbits.

Please follow Jeff's lead and send photos of bocce in your area. People LOVE seeing courts and bocce play from around the country, and we might include one of your photos (with your permission) in the new book!}

Choose the Clubhawk Gold, Henselite Bowls, or Premier Boule Measure. You can't go wrong with any of the three choices. Once a bocce aficionado has a set of bocce balls and my book, the next logical acquisition is a first-rate measure.

Each retails for $26.95 plus $5.00 shipping and will be shipped US Priority Mail.

Please - anyone running a tournament - do me a favor - put a notice near your tourney bracket board informing players that they can go to http://www.joyofbocce.com and "opt in" for my FREE Ezine on bocce. Click the logo to the right to opt in if you do not already receive this ezine every Monday.

Please consider designating someone as "official event photographer" and directing that person to send snapshots for us to reproduce as photos of the week. Our readers love seeing bocce action from around the continent.

Check out the first-rate equipment we offer. The finest measuring devices for bocce (made in UK by Prohawk for lawn bowling, petanque, and bocce) - the finest bocce balls in the world (made in Italy by Perfetta) and the number one selling instructional book on bocce in America - Check them out.Check out the merchandise